Today, television programs are recorded at home on low capacity magnetic tape storage devices using video cassette recorders (VCRs). Typically, conventional video cassettes store only three or four hours of good quality movies. Thus, in order to record many programming hours, a user must use several video cassettes.
A conventional VCR is typically a passive recorder since it does not determine what television material to record. Typically, the VCR must be programmed by the user in order to initiate recording, and programming options typically include only selection of a time to begin recording and a time to end recording.
When the user wants to see a portion of a recorded movie, the user must first determine in which cassette the movie is recorded since VCRs do not provide a recording content guide. Although the user may write on each cassette titles of movies recorded therein, most users do not keep track of the movies recorded on their video cassettes. This makes searching of movies in video cassettes difficult.
Even after the user determines which video cassette includes the required movie, the user must rewind the cassette or move forward to find the portion of the movie. Such operations are inconvenient and typically cause wear to the video cassette and several electro-mechanical parts of a VCR thereby resulting in a need for frequent repairs in video laboratories.
Some VCRs also provide an editing function which enables the user to edit a recorded movie. However, editing with a VCR is difficult and requires frequent rewinding or moving forward of video cassettes which, as mentioned above, causes wear to the video cassettes and several electro-mechanical parts of the VCR.
Thus, it is appreciated that a recording and retrieval system which enables easy access to selected portions of stored movies and simple editing of movies will be highly desired.
In a publication titled “Double Agent—Presentation and Filtering Agents for a Digital Television Recording system” by Meuleman et al. of Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, dated 18-23 Apr. 1998, there is described a double agent which explores scenarios for automated selection of television programs and their presentation via anthropomorphic interfaces. The double agent operates on data recorded by an experimental digital VCR.
In a publication titled “SMASH—a concept for advanced use of storage at home” by Persoon of Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, dated 3 May 1998, the concept of SMASH (Storage for Multimedia Applications and Systems) is described. The main goal of the project is to explore the future possibilities offered on the one hand by the massive amount of new digital services that enter the consumers home and on the other hand the impressive progress of storage technologies that are suitable for home use.
In a publication titled “Mediators—Guides through online TV services” by Kohar et al. of Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, dated 3 May 1998, there are described anthropomorphic guides who aid users in selection and navigation to content in interactive television services.
The following US Patents are related to special effects in television: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,080,626; 4,272,787; 4,768,095; 4,774,582; 4,777,531; 5,519,448; 5,621,473.
Israel Patent Application 121230, submitted 3 Jul. 1997 and corresponding published PCT Application WO 99/01984 both assigned to NDS Limited describe one system for using intelligent agents to customize an electronic program guide (EPG) based on user behavior.
Israel Patent Application 120174, submitted 8 Feb. 1997 and corresponding published UK Patent Application 2,322,030 both assigned to NDS Limited describes a method for producing and recording a digital data stream and particularly for protecting recording of digital data streams including digital television data.
In a DAVIC (The Digital Audio-Visual Council) publication DAVIC/TC/APP/98/05/001 titled “Applications for Home Storage Based Systems”, dated 1 May 1998, there are described a number of applications which can be realized through the provision of home storage systems, made easy to use by appropriate use of content descriptions, markers, links and agent technologies.
The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification are hereby incorporated herein by reference.